


Out of State

by popfly



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-11-15
Updated: 2004-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-09 08:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popfly/pseuds/popfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gapfiller for season one, episode sixteen. Brian is certainly not upset because Justin's talking about an out of state college. Certainly not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of State

The door to the Jeep slammed, cutting my "fuck you" short, and I sneered through the window as Justin turned his back and hitched the strap of his backpack up onto his shoulder. My words hung in the now-still air inside the car, and they echoed in my ears as I pulled away from the curb. He hadn't even looked daunted, had kept grinning like an idiot, his head wagging, his tongue peeking between his teeth. He was acting like his 1500 SAT score meant he knew what the fuck he was talking about when it came to Brian Kinney. He was sadly mistaken.

Or was he?

I certainly felt something when he listed off the schools he'd applied to, and I couldn't attribute it to the fact that he'd scored higher on his SATs than I had in high school, although I did feel a little prick of annoyance at that. 

I thought maybe it was a gut reaction to the names of the schools. Brown and Dartmouth were rich white schools where pretentious twats went to study business or criminal justice or other mundane things, totally wrong for Justin and I bet he knew it too. I could have just been worried that he'd end up at a school where he'd be bored and miserable. It had nothing to do with the fact that Brown was in Rhode Island and Dartmouth was in New Hampshire. Absolutely nothing.

Whatever it was, it settled in my stomach and hardened into a knot of tension, and even the latte - which had only cost three fifty - couldn't calm it. The thought of going to work in the mood I was in did not appeal to me, and nothing was going on early that day anyway, Ryder was in meetings until ten and I had dick-all to work on until then, so I thought I'd stop at the diner and see if anyone was there.

Michael was, sitting in our usual booth, an empty plate in front of him and the comic section of the newspaper shoved off to the edge of the table. I slid in across from him and shrugged out of my coat, my sneer still firmly in place.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Michael asked, eyeing me over the rim of his coffee mug.

"Fuck off," was my reply. I knew it was harsh, but I wasn't in the mood to answer those kinds of questions, the kind I didn't really know the answer to.

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Debbie came up to the table and tapped her pen on her pad, arching an eyebrow at me. I felt a stab of guilt and tried to relax my face.

"Bad morning," I said, blinking up at her. "Coffee?" I didn't really need more caffeine after my latte, but after Justin's little lecture this morning I had the urge to drink a gallon of the stuff.

"Sure." Her and Michael exchanged a look before she moved away to get the coffee pot.

"Justin?" Michael asked, smoothing some papers out on the table top. I bit my lips together, swallowing the caustic words that threatened to spill out of my mouth and thinking of some way to change the topic. Thankfully I didn't have to. Michael squinted down at whatever he was reading and then swore. "This doesn't make any sense."

"What are you looking at?" I nodded thanks to Deb when she filled my mug and I reached for the sugar as Michael huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"My bank statement."

"What's wrong with it?" I stirred my coffee with one hand and grabbed the papers with the other, scanning the figures listed neatly in columns.

"I have almost a thousand dollars more than I should have."

I shrugged and slid his statement back across to him. He frowned down at it, his arms still crossed. "And that's a problem why?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "I don't understand how this happened." He rubbed his face and looked at his watch. "Would you have time to take me to the bank?"

I heaved a sigh and acted put out even though I knew I wasn't going into work for awhile. It must have been residual annoyance from the Justin-college conversation. 

I finished my coffee and left some money on the table and then Michael and I left, Debbie calling good-byes after us. In the Jeep on the way to the bank Michael got on my case again.

"So why did you come in all huffy?"

I took a slow, deep breath and stared ahead at the red light. "I was not huffy," I said, avoiding the question to give myself time to think of an excuse. "I'm never huffy."

"Pissed off, annoyed, what the fuck ever. What did he do this time?"

"Why does it always have to be about Justin?" I stomped hard on the gas when the light changed and felt a little better when Michael lurched in his seat. 

"Because it always has been lately."

I opened my mouth to protest, but instead found myself telling Michael all about Justin applying to out of state colleges. Michael didn't say anything, just kept nodding silently, and when I turned off the engine in the parking lot of the bank he opened the door and got out. I leaned my head back against the seat briefly before unbuckling my seatbelt and getting out myself. Michael came around the front of the Jeep and stood in front of me.

"It's okay to be upset about him going away, as thrilled as I'd be, I can understand it." He looked like it was taking a lot of effort to force the words out, so I kept my snarky responses to myself. 

"I'm not upset about him going away," I said, but even as the words were spoken I could feel that maybe I really was. "I'm upset because he was being an annoying little shit, as usual." I ignored the lift of Michael's eyebrows and crooked my arm around his neck. "Now can we go take care of this bank shit so I can go to work?"

Michael laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, let's go."


End file.
